Tata Teleservices has spent Rs 550 crore in Mumbai alone where its licence is coming up for renewal. It will now retain spectrum in the 1,800 Mhz band in the circle.

Vodafone and Idea are looking to increase their 4G holdings to bridge the gap with Airtel and Jio, which have pan-India holdings. Over the past four days, both number two and three telcos have been focusing mainly on the 4G bands of 2300 MHz and 1800 MHz.

Indian telcos added about Rs 2,500 crore on the fourth day, taking the overall value of bids to Rs 63,500 crore at the end of 23 rounds. Of the 2,354.55 Mhz up for auction, 956 Mhz has been sold so far.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Reliance Jio, Aircel, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices are in the fray for acquiring 3G and 4G airwaves in the ongoing spectrum. Notably, all these telcos haven’t bid for the expensive 4G band of 700 MHz so far.

Spectrum bids by Indian telecom operators are aimed at boosting 4G airwaves with entire spectrum in 2,300 Mhz, 74 per cent in 1,800 Mhz and 57 per cent in 2,500 Mhz band being sold, brokerage CLSA.

“Nearly half of 3G spectrum put up for auction is witnessing traction, though not over any premium. The operators are clearly looking to plug the coverage gap in their 3G footprint,” said Prashant Singhal, Global telecom leader, EY.

If you consider how far behind Vodafone and Idea are from Jio and Airtel in 4G spectrum, you should expect them (Vodafone and Idea) to be much ahead in bidding for spectrum.

Maybe the the pricing is low (near reserve price) in many areas due to large amount of spectrum put up for auction. This could be helping Vodafone and Idea pick up lot of spectrum at not very high costs.

At least Vodafone will also try to combine it with wired broadband and wifi to meet the demand for data in major markets like Mumbai.